Ox-Cart Man
"Ox-Cart Man" is Episode 3 in Season 2. It originally aired on July 18, 1984. Synopsis The episode begins with LeVar driving in his car singing to a song on the radio called "Traveling in Time". As soon as he arrives at the gates of Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, the engine dies. He welcomes the viewers as he gets out. At the village, you enter a whole new world that is different from the one we know. Once you cross through the gates, you go out of the present and into the past. The title book got LeVar started into visiting there. Life was simpler during the colonial times, or was it? He has come to see for himself. A man in an ox-cart stops by and LeVar tells him that he has lost his horsepower. He gives him a ride into the village. Inside the village, LeVar tells the viewers that he feels like he stepped into the pages of the title book. It is where everything looks, smells, sounds, and tastes just like it did 160 years ago, and it's a living museum. The people who work there learn about a reenact life as it was during that time in the history of early America. Back then, people depended on muscle power. Try to imagine what life would be like with no electricity and machines. Animals, just like people, had full-time jobs around the early 1800s. Oxen were trained to pull carts and tractors, especially after they were born. They were the strongest animals for the engines to pull and hall. An ox trainer shows the viewers how he trains young oxen for those jobs. Trainers use special words for giving oxen the commands for the directions in where to go. For example, the trainer says "come ha" to make the ox go left and "go gee" to go right. No matter the century you live in, a warm kitchen is the best place to be in on a cold day. LeVar loves the smell of fresh homemade bread. Back in colonial times, you had to churn your own butter, and the kitchen also had other unusual gadgets used for cooking. LeVar shows an object people used back then to the viewers. There was no auto pop-up back then, so this object was used to brown both sides of the bread. It is called a toe-toaster. If you're not careful, it could toast your breakfast and your toes. It's amazing what foods, and other things, you can make with your own two hands. Even the toe-toaster was made by hand by a blacksmith who forced it out of fire and iron. LeVar introduces a blacksmith to the viewers. He is making door handles and asks LeVar for some help. He starts the fire to heat up the iron, that way it will bend while striking it. That's what it means with the expression, "strike while the iron is hot". The term blacksmith comes from the word "spite", which means "to hit". Goldsmiths hit gold and silversmiths hit silver, so a blacksmith is a person who hits iron and steel. For doing such a good job in helping, the blacksmith gives LeVar some pay: a piece of cheese. During colonial times, they had a trading system called bartering in which people trade items. LeVar goes to a general store to buy some things. The storekeeper asks him how he'll pay. He shows him his credit card. In those times, there were no plastic. He then remembers about the barter system. So he pays the piece the cheese he got from the blacksmith. LeVar tells the viewers that everything was made by hand in the early 1800s, even books, He shows how a children's book looked like back then. He is at a printing shop to earn how books were printed in those days. The man who works the printer sets the type and border for the book. After doing that, he gets ready to print. Operating a printing machine was a two-person job back then: one person put the paper in the machine and the other inked the type. Thanks to bookstores and libraries today, you can check out more than one book at a time. LeVar says that people love to have fun no matter the century they lived in. At Old Sturbridge Village, the old days may have been those to remember. People lived near land and enjoyed nature. And the world was more for them because they made so much of the land by hand. LeVar says that looking back at how far you came can show you just how far you can go. You're the new pioneers, and you can keep going back even farther to discover other exciting frontiers. Review Books *Wagon Wheels *A Winter Place *Round Trip Category:Season 2 Category:Episodes